Nora vs Eleanor

I love the nickname Nora, and always thought I would name her Eleanor and then just call her Nora. I love Eleanor too, but I'm pretty confident we would shorten it.

One of my friends was talking the other day about how they think it's silly to name a child a longer name when all you want to call them is the nickname, i.e. Maxwell for Max, William for Billy, Abigail for Abby, Catherine for Cate etc. She was saying why not just name the child the nickname you're going to use.

My theory was that if we named her Eleanor, she could always use it when she's older as a more professional, mature sounding name as opposed to Nora.

Nora is very pretty, but I am a huge Eleanor fan so I have to go with that one. I understand what your friends mean... but nicknames are a natural thing. You may find that you won't call her Nora at all, but something else. I like leaving options for your child, as they are the ones who will have to live with the name.

I would go for Eleanor! I think Nora could easily stand alone but I think Eleanor has more strength and versatility as a name... It means that no matter who she grows up to be the name will fit her... She can be Nora but also Eleanor, Ellie, Elle even Nellie or Nell...

We have a Nora who we had thought about naming Eleanor. We ultimately decided to go with just Nora, because we knew we definitely didn't want an Ellie/Elle of any kind, and we really just wanted to call her Nora. We knew that we could tell family and friends we'd prefer the nickname Nora, but once she got into school, it would be out of our control if her friends (or she) wanted to start using Ellie/Elle instead. We also knew we'd end up calling her Nora almost all of the time, rather than Eleanor.

In our case, I am extremely happy we chose just Nora. It doesn't feel incomplete or like a nickname at all. Despite its origins, Nora has been a standalone name for a while now and is commonly accepted as one.